Feb. 14, 2004

Edinburg, Texas - Texas Pan American gave its alumni a great homecoming treat, a 90-72 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at the UTPA Fieldhouse tonight. It was a huge win over the Islanders who were ranked 125th in the NCAA Division I RPI poll. It was also the sixth straight win for the Broncs.

This was the homecoming game for the Broncs who had a reception for former players and coaches prior to tip off. Eight members of the 1963 NAIA National Championship team were on hand; the coach Sam Williams who won 244 games in 15 years with the Broncs, Gordon Forester (the trainer), Jim Board who was an NAIA All-American in 1963-64, Tony De La Pena who currently teaches at UTPA, Jim Harter, Joe Karam, Jim McGurk who was an NAIA All-American in 1962-63 and Marty Urand. In addition to those eight, also present were Lalo Rios (1996-99), Roy Swift (1985-88), Kevin Mitchell (2002-03), Brian Molina (1996-97), Matt Palmquist (1997-00), John Braxton (1999-01), Nelson Olivera (1994-96), Ernie Azios (1967-68), Roger Serio (1967-68) and Joey Tate (2001-02). The alumni were honored at halftime of the game.

Texas Pan-American was in charge for most of the contest. The Broncs jumped out to a 21-11 lead with 12:39 to go. TAMCC got buckets from Thomas Bailey and Brian Evans to close the gap to six, 21-15 with 11:23 to go. The Islanders cut the margin to eight only to see Eric Montalvo (Jr./La Joya, Texas/La Joya HS) hit a fade away three-pointer at the buzzer to give UTPA a 42-31 lead at the half.

Texas-Pan American opened the second half on a 15-6 to lead, 57-41 with 15:46 to go. The Islanders could never get closer than 14 points the rest of the game.

For UTPA (11-13) Sergio Sanchez (Jr./San Antonio, Texas/Temple College) had 21 points, 10 assists and shot six-of-nine on three-pointers, Andrius Sakalys (Sr./Vilnius, Lithuania/Eastern Oklahoma State) had 17 points, Allen Holcomb (Sr./Chicago, Ill./Allen County CC) had 14 points and Montalvo had 13 points and six assists.

For Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (13-9) Bailey came off the bench to score 24 points while Evans had 15 points.

"I was not expecting to come out and win this game by the margin that we did." Said head coach Bob Hoffman. "Ronnie (Arrow) is a great coach and he has some unbelievable athletes on his squad. We shot the ball extremely well tonight and we had a lot of unselfish plays. Our willingness to distribute the ball left us open for good shots. Now that this game is done, we have one day to get ready for Air Force on Monday. They are well coached and a very good team with a deliberate offense and defense. It's always better to prepare for your next game following a win rather than a loss."

UTPA is back at the Fieldhouse, Monday, February 16 taking on Air Force. The game is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.